By Richard Cuicchi | June 24, 2013 at 04:11 AM EDT |
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#HailState.
Mississippi State is starting its pursuit of the College World Series championship today against UCLA. Not Vanderbilt, not South Carolina, not Florida, not LSU, all of whom were the more likely SEC contenders for the national title, based on recent history. This is the sixth consecutive year an SEC team has made the CWS finals. However, for the first time in my 40+ years of following my alma mater, I’ll join a lot of ‘Dawgs fans in getting a rare opportunity to root for them to accomplish what they’ve never done before—a national championship in baseball, or any other major college sport for that matter.
This year’s field of CWS participants had some non-traditional teams—Louisville, Indiana, North Carolina State, along with surprising Mississippi State. Some might argue this year’s overall lineup of teams was one of the weakest in the history of the Series. MSU last appeared in the CWS in 2007, but the last time they had a serious chance at the title was in 1985, when Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, and Bobby Thigpen were headlining the team. There have been seven other CWS appearances by MSU going back to 1971. However, the team has averaged only a bit over one win per series in these nine appearances.
While MSU may not have the history of CWS winning experience as some of the other college baseball powerhouses, make no mistake about it, the Bulldogs have a strong baseball tradition in the South. In fact, a case can be made that the Bulldog program, under head coach Ron Polk, was responsible for the rise in popularity of college baseball as a spectator sport, when they began drawing up to eight or nine thousand fans for regular-season games back in the early 1980s. In fact, on April 30th of this year the Bulldogs drew 14,562 fans at Dudy Noble Field for a home game against Auburn. Did you know that MSU holds all ten of the top ten attendances for NCAA campus baseball games, of all time?
Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier, Ross Mitchell, Kendall Graveman, Chad Girodo, and Jonathan Holder headline the 2013 edition of the Bulldogs under head coach John Cohen. Shortstop Frazier, a sixth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates this year, was on a hot streak as a hitter in the Super Regionals and has carried it over into the CWS. Mitchell has an amazing 13-0 record as a relief pitcher. Graveman, an eighth-round selection of the Toronto Blue Jays, has a 3-0 record in four NCAA tournament appearances. Chad Girodo has a 9-1 record for the season and was selected in the ninth round by the Toronto Blue Jays. Holder recorded his 21st save of the season over Oregon State last Friday. Outfielder Renfroe was an All-SEC player this year and the thirteenth overall pick of the 2013 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres.
In May, Hunter Renfroe was awarded the Ferriss Trophy as the top college player in Mississippi. The annual award is named after Dave “Boo” Ferriss, who was actually Mississippi State’s first baseball scholarship athlete in 1940. Ferriss is the State of Mississippi’s most famous baseball legend, having been inducted in the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame and later coaching Delta State University to 639 wins.
I spoke to Boo (we are both natives of Shaw, MS) this past week and asked him about MSU’s chances against UCLA. He was optimistic that the Bulldogs could win it all. He felt that their balance of pitching and hitting would match up well with the Bruins. Of course, Boo likes Renfroe’s bat. He joked that the power hitter’s professional signing will likely make him more money than all the other residents of Copiah County, from where Renfroe hails.
So, I’m using this opportunity to brag about Mississippi State baseball. Let’s hope the bragging rights will include a national championship later this week!
#HailState.